House Planning | The Nursery

Probably the most frequent pregnancy-related question I’m asked these days is, “Have you started on the nursery yet?” And I’m pretty sure each person who asks it expects a resounding YES! in return. But guess what? I haven’t even started on decorating the nursery yet! In real life, that is. The room is still covered in moving boxes, clothing racks, and yes, dust. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t designed and redesigned the nursery a dozen times in my mind. I want to make sure I’ve gotten it right, you see. We’ve been saving up to pay cash for everything that goes in this little room, and by our calculations, everything will be ready for installation in August. Hopefully I can still move by then. Baby girl is due on September 21st! Yikes!

Right now I’ve been paying the most attention to the west wall of the room (see elevation below). Things that are ready for the room include: the lockers (freshly painted white), the wall art (hand-me-down from our apartment-living days), the table (old typist stand painted white), and the lamp (formerly in our bedroom). DIY projects I’ve been putting off: making the curtains (easy peasy!), reupholstering the rocking chair with an orange vintage bedspread (cheap!), and stitching together a poof to go next to the chair (intimidating!).

Almost everything’s all set to go, I just need to find some motivation to finish up all of the projects I’ve gotten myself into. But in the meantime, I’ve been thinking of cute storage solution for all of the blankets and stuffed toys which we’ll most likely have coming out of our ears. Right now I’m on the hunt for the perfect basket or two to sit atop the set of small lockers. Which option do you like best?

22 Responses

I’m due September 25th and we’ve barely begun to work on the nursery, either! In my head, it’s complete though ;) We’re also putting old high school lockers in ours since we have NO extra closet space. I’m building a wardrobe out of them, if you will. We FINALLY got those painted (a rich green) this past week! I feel behind in the nursery business but glad to know that we’re in the same boat! :)

Adding to the wire basket vote – I like being able to see into the storage.

That said, there’s a very cute photo of me when I was a baby, sitting in my gran’s big wicker basket (apparently I would stop crying as soon as she put me in there), so I guess wicker is multi-purpose!

I love your nursery design, the lockers are a really fresh idea that a kid will love! I think I like the fourth basket best — the pattern is really fun and interesting, but I also love wire baskets. Good luck on everything! I’ve seen many many DIY instructions for poufs and I too would be intimidated to attempt one!

I love your drawings and your decoration plan! Stylish with a vintage touch, while taking advantage of all the space without crowding it with furniture! So balanced!
I prefer basket n.3 or n.4 – I am not a fan of metalic textures, because I find them too cold for a cozy room! ;-)

Hi, they all look nice but when baby girl grows maybe you like her to put away her own toys in her basket or play safely around and with them, so metal looks great but might not be that child friendly. SpeAking for esperience… Urray for the children safe home, better quality life for everyone :-)

As much as I like the idea of wire baskets (especially option 2!), I wonder if they will be very practical. If the things going in them will be infrequently used I would be inclined to think wire = dusty basket contents. You’ve probably already thought about all this though. :)

I keep re-reading my comment and I don’t want it to sound rude or anything. So not my intent, it was just one of the first things I thought about when I saw the baskets, after drooling over them, haha.

Oh no, you don’t sound rude at all! I’m not even sure what will be going in them yet, so maybe I should figure that out before I select a basket type. I was thinking maybe stuffed animals, but I’m not sure. I just feel like I will need storage, but I don’t know what yet. Ya know?

Hello! I am a preschool teacher and wire baskets + stuffed animals = a match made in heaven! Because the children can SEE the toys in the basket, they are more inclined to want to play with them more. We used to have closed-walled (errm, you know what I mean) baskets and only the few toys on top would ever get played with. Just a thought! PS basket 2 gets my vote!

That’s a great insight, Lisa! I hadn’t thought of that. Makes sense, though. It’s nice for anyone to be bale to see what’s inside, even adults, in case you think something’s been misplaced, but in actuality it’s just hanging out inside the basket. :)

I vote for #2! I love wicker baskets – but usually the huge ones you sit on the floor with throw blankets and pillows stuffed inside. I think the wire ones without the handles will look neat and clean on top of the lockers – neat and clean, but also vintage and cute! Love all your ideas and I CAN’T WAIT to see it all put together!

I love your loose drawing sketches! They remind me of my own. Can you tell me what medium you did them in? Perhaps photoshop? Wondering because I would love to try and put mine in the same format. Thanks! Great blog!